Smiley and Jorge

Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.

Hi buddy, I'm Smiley

In 1963, Harvey Ball, an American commercial artist was employed by State Mutual Life Insurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts (now known as Hanover Insurance) to create a happy face to raise the morale of the employees. Ball created the design in 10 minutes. The happy face soon assumed the moniker ‘Smiley’ and was paired with the banal ‘Have a nice day.’

Harvey Ball with the iconic Smiley he created

Smiley and its insipid phrase have become so ubiquitous that words are not needed to describe one of the most iconic totems of the 20th century. This syrupy mantra has rightly been described as “a zombifying hollow sentiment, emblematic of Nixon-era America and the passing from the optimism of the Summer of Love into the more cynical decades that followed.” (Smiley, Wikipedia)

The kickoff for the Summer of Love took place in 1967 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, where 100,000 youth converged with an agenda: leftist politics, sub-cultural music, drugs, sexual license and a peacenik obsession against the war against Communism in Vietnam.

They had, of course, the perfect backdrop supplied by post-Conciliar Popes to support their cause. First there was John XXIII's vision - or rather lack of it - about Communism. In open defiance against Our Lady of Fatima, so contemptuous as to seem delusional, he stated: “It is necessary to leave our ghetto [meaning the Church]; we have other things to do than to throw stones at Communism?” (1)

Peaceniks in Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love

Paul VI followed suit, setting the rhythmatics for the moral and cultural debasement that followed and fostering the peacenik attitude. In his address to the United Nations on October 4, 1965, he gave this cowardly pacific message: “No more war, war never again! “Leave the Communists alone was the message. (2)

The progressivist Church and the servile media carried the message to the world. Fifty thousand U.S. warriors died in Vietnam for nothing. The lid for a visionary utopian peace and seismic depravity was off, endorsed by the Conciliar Church. The Summer of Love went global.

Hi buddy, I'm Jorge

In 2013, Card. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., of Argentina was elected as Head of the world's most powerful institution. Although he should be called Pope Francis, he prefers being called ‘Jorge,’ adopting a casual style that fits his sanguine countenance, remindful of the “zombifying hollow sentiment,” described above.

Adlai Stevenson making a show of his frugality

Jorge's ostentatious showboating as a man of the poor, calls to my mind a political photo that made the gimmick of appearing lowly infamous. The year was 1952, and the former Governor of Illinois, Adlai E. Stevenson, was picked as the Democratic Party's choice to run for president of the United States. His opposition was a military hero, Republican Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who won by a landslide. But something happened during Stevenson's campaign that came to represent the American obsession with appearing lowly.

Stevenson was notoriously wealthy and having trouble establishing himself as a man of the people. His campaign team decided that he needed to transmit a different image, one of putative frugality. In a posed photograph during his campaign, he crossed his legs to make a ostentatious display of alleged abnegation: a large hole was distinctly visible in the sole of his right shoe.

It spoke volumes: “People of our country, we have a thrifty future president! Behold his humble frugality! Even in his personal attire he is unashamed to show his earthiness and egalitarian ways!”

But some citizens saw through the ruse: “Frugality is admirable... but this crosses the line into an unacceptable demagogy. Further: it crosses the line into ridiculous affectation.” (3)

It is not difficult to see how Stevenson’s demagogy can also be noticed in Pope Francis, who pretends to be another St. Francis in his humility and poverty. With his smiling face and self-deprecating manner, he is the perfect candidate to bring a new phase to the process of miserablism in the Church.

His enthused commitment to the progressivist agenda of interfaith dialogue - the long dreamed-of pan-religion - is a matter of record. Courting Schismatics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims he acts to finish razing the identity of the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis making a show of his humility

He has co-authored a book with his ‘good friend’ Rabbi Abraham Skorka. His first letter as Pope on the very night of his election was to the Rabbi of Rome, assuring him of his cooperation in more dialogue. On Holy Thursday he made the unprecedented and spectacular act of washing the feet of teenage criminals, among whom were two girls – one a Serbian Muslim.

Further, he has already set up a plan to change the way of governing the Church, introducing an 8-member advisory board to reflect the universal nature of the Church in key governing decisions.

The Cardinals knew what they wanted: a Smiley to further the Council's agenda to try to destroy the Church, forthwith. The glut of data compiled in less than a month on Jorge's effort at self-destruction has made his agenda transparent.

Any supposed efforts to revive the Old Latin Mass by Benedict are off the back burner. I hope traditionalists are not fooled by Francis’ smile or Benedict’s supposed conservativism. The two are part of the same game-plan, acting in unison to move up the pace of the revolution in the Church.

Doctrinal, liturgical and architectural integrity will not be restored by a man whose first act as Pope was to turn the altar of the Sistine Chapel versus populum to say his first Mass to the Cardinal electors. And the drowning of the Church in its myriads of sexual scandals and cover-ups will not stop with a man who supported “gay” civil unions in Argentina, when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. What we need in the future is a Pope with the heart of a lion who will take strong, stern measures to rid the church of this diabolical filth. This is not the smiling Francis.